Golden Circle: White Pass Summit Excursion

We had booked tickets for the White Pass Summit Railroad because it was highly recommended online and by people we talked to.  Having done both the drive down the highway and taken the train back up to the White Pass Summit again the following day, I would say the scenery is nothing compared to what we saw the day before.  But then the train ride is an experience in itself because it is a historic narrow-gauge railroad constructed in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush.  Built amidst challenging climate and geography, it was considered an engineering marvel at the time.  The train climbs 3000 ft in 20 miles with numerous bridges and trestles on the way.  You can see some of these in the photos below.

I was glad I chatted with the station staff who took us to board the train.  She gave us a tip to get on the first car, it will become the last car on the way down.  It seems that only the first two cars were allotted to passengers getting on at the Skagway town stop.  The rest of the cars were all allotted to cruise ship passengers! 

White Pass Summit Railroad

The historic engine, now parked in the yard

Skagway river

Magical morning mists

Train going over trestle bridge

...and into the tunnel

This is near the end of the ride.

This is where the engine at the front was uncoupled from the rest of the train.  There was another engine at the other end and the train headed back to Skagway with that engine.   Starting off in the first car behind the engine, we headed back in the last car, which gave us a great view of the train on the downward trip.

The train bypassed the old wooden bridge that is no long safe to use.

View of the other train going up to Lake Bennet

Back to Skagway after a 3.5 hour ride

Golden Circle: Skagway, Alaska

Skagway is a bit of a come down (literally!) after that magnificent drive down the South Klondike Highway.  But it is one of the first main stops in Alaska for a lot of cruise ship passengers, hence the abundance of tanzanite, Alaskan diamond and gemstone stores.  The town has a wide main drag lined with shops and eateries on both sides - very much a frontier town.  The architecture is quite "cute" as you can see from some of the images below.  

It used to be the gateway to the gold mines via the 45 mile White Pass Trail, also known as the "Dead Horse Trail" for obvious reasons.  Now it is a gateway to the mountains, the new gold - what the tourists came for.  The town, with a population of around 1,000, schedule its life around the White Pass Railroad timetable, almost the raison d'etre for the town itself.  Everything stops when the train is unloading its tourists and letting them loose on the town to spend their dollars.  And the train runs a perfect schedule for the local businesses - bringing back the tourists just in time for lunch and do some shopping before getting on the cruise ship again, just as the afternoon crowd was finishing their lunch and ready to hop on the train.

I talked to the station master for the train, an empathetic local - she said the town pretty much shuts down after September when the cruise ships stop coming.  We kind of wondered what the locals do during the long winter months.  We had booked tickets for the White Pass Summit Excursion the following day all the while wondering if we should because we would be taking the train up the way we came down and it wasn't cheap - more in the next post.

Picturesque - almost like a town in a model train set!

The main drag

A tame version of frontier town swagger

  

Cute buildings- mostly curio shops

  

 

 

This historical building, with a facade of 9,000 pieces of driftwood, used to be the home of the Camp Skagway No. 1, a brotherhood of speculators and miners established in 1899.

Sculpture of the gold miners in the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park

The haunted Golden North Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in Alaska, built in 1898

 

A must-stop for people with a sweet tooth - Klondike Doughboy selling made to order Alaskan fry bread - delicious!

Happy customer!

Another must-stop - the Skagway Brewing Company - to sample a range of handcrafted Alaskan beers